In the year brew thousand… in the year brew thousaaaaand! The new year is upon us and, as such, there has never a more relevant time to look into the future. Fueled with pour-overs of Loyal Coffee's Mountain Melody Blend brewed using an appropriately futuristic brewer, Sprudgecast hosts Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen make their startling predictions for 2026.

Did someone say futuristic brewer? Yes, that's right. Live on the show, the hosts try out the Melitta Senz V, a high-tech pour-over brewing kit that pairs with the Wabilogic phone app. The brewer is loaded with sensors (two scales, temp probe, and TDS) that send data in realtime to the app—providing temperature, brew time information, and TDS measurements.

The TDS (total dissolved solids) data is sent to the app, giving the user an analysis that predicts the overall extraction level (strength) of the brew. On the device itself, it displays a simple interpretation of that data with nine built-in taste profiles (e.g. "strong", "acidic"). Measuring coffee's TDS using laboratory-grade refractometers have been part of professional specialty coffee toolkits for over a decade, and the Melitta Senz-V brings this useful technology to the casual home coffee brewer—especially to those who are experimenting with their brew water.

The coffee brewer has been "out there" since 2022, with availability really ramping up in 2025, and the app is connected to an active community of users sharing their data and even rating their roasted coffee's quality, offering a useful database of highly rated coffee roasters and brew recipes. For our Loyal Coffee Mountain Melody blend, we gave it five stars.

Predictions abound on the episode—but to find out what we really think you'll need to listen. Or read the transcript. You do you! It's 2026—we're just thirteen buttons in, 352 to go!

This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Baratza, noissue, Ceado, Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, and DONA.